Over the past few years, there has been increased demand for tablet computers, especially in light of their portability. Operating from either external or portable power sources, conventional tablet computers feature a liquid crystal display (LCD) connected to and mounted on a body case.
According to one type of conventional tablet computer, the LCD is rotationally attached to the body case by a cylindrical shaft as described in a published Japanese Application No. JP-A-10-55227. As a result, the computer can operate either as a tablet computer when the LCD is positioned directly above the body case or as a laptop computer when the LCD is horizontally rotated about the shaft by approximately 180 degrees to fully exposed the keyboard.
For this conventional tablet computer, the shaft operates as a conduit for a display cable that electrically connects the LCD to circuitry within the body case. Hence, the shaft is designed to overlap the display cable in order to prevent the cable from being damaged during horizontal rotation of the LCD. However, this overlapping architecture possesses a number of disadvantages.
For instance, one disadvantage is that the tablet computer must be constructed with a predetermined thickness in order to provide sufficient clearance for the display cable upon exiting the shaft. Otherwise, when the LCD is rotated, the display cable may become crushed or pressed against the edges of the shaft. This will likely cause accelerated wear of the display cable, which may lead to increased reliability problems. As a result, thinner tablet computers cannot be developed without addressing this potential reliability concern.